The present disclosure relates to the field of food preparation. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a dispenser for condiments.
Commercial restaurants, including fast-food restaurants require both fast and consistent preparation of food. To this end, condiment dispensers are used in an effort to consistently portion out liquid or viscous food products such as ketchup, mustard, and liquid margarine onto a sandwich or other food product being prepared.
Currently available condiment dispensers employ mechanical pumps that discharge the food product onto the food being prepared. Mechanical pumps include valve devices that are pumped to be filled with the food product from a reservoir and then to discharge the portioned volume of product through some form of nozzle onto the food. The valve devices are either mechanical in nature with machined or molded parts with some form of return spring. An exemplary embodiment of such is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0024887 entitled “Liquid Butter Dispenser”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Alternatively, the valve is a flexible diaphragm that releases under pressure to allow fluid flow. In currently available dispensers, these parts are hard to assemble, difficult to clean, fragile in nature, require periodic replacement, and/or are easily lost when the device is disassembled.